Retaining mechanism.



F. N. HALL.

RETAINING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED mm: 22, 1911.

Patented Oct. 28, 1913.

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UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFTQE.

FREDERICK N. HALL, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL RAILWAY SIGNAL COMPANY, OF GATES, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

RETAINING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Oct. 2s, 1913.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, FREDERICK N. HALL, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have 1nvented a new and useful Retaining Mechanism, of which the following is a specification. 0

This invention relates to a retaining mechanism, such as is used to retain a semaphore or signal of any description in its moved position.

The object of the invention is to materially improve upon the construction and arrange ment of devices of the character stated.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be appreciated as the description progresses of the form selected to illustrate the invention.

In the drawings, accompanying this specification, wherein like characters of reference designate similar parts: Figure 1 is a cross sectional elevation partly diagrammatic on the plane indicated by line AB, Fig. 3;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional elevation on the line CD, Fig. 1; Fig. 3, is. a cross sectional 7 plan view on the line EF, Fig. 1; Fig. 4

illustrates the main parts of the device shown, when in looking position.

00nstmcti0n.1 designates an inolosing casing for the mechanism hereinafter described which also serves as the field yoke of an electric motor of which the poles are 2 and 3, between which is the armature 4; 5 designates the shaft upon which the armature is mounted, which is in turn mounted in the bearing 6, and restrained in any well known and approved manner from movement longitudinally of its axis; 7 and 8 designate field coils wound upon the poles 2 and 3; 9 designates a down-standing member which is cast integral with the case 1 and bears upon one side the rectangular member 10 fastened thereto by means of pins 11 and screw 12; 13 designates a pin passing through the lower end of the member 10 and also passing through the ends of the two side pieces 14 and 15 which, together, form a guide and holder for a pawl 16. The other ends of these two side members have an elongated slot 17 formed therein, through which passes a pin 18, which also passes through the arm 19 of a two arm crank, the other arm of which is designated by 20. Cotter pins 21 hold the pin 13 in place and cotter pins 22, hold the pin 18 in place. A pin 23 is supported by both of the members 14 and 15, and has pivoted thereon the pawl 16 which has an arm 24 to which is attached one end of a spring 25, the other end of which is attached to a pin 26 supported by side members 14 and 15 and when the end ofthe spring is passed about the pin 26 and the pawl is in the position shown in Fig. 1, the spring is extended so that it exerts a force upon one arm of pawl 16 to rotate it about its pivot 23 so that it will bear against the pin 27 which thus limits its movement in that direction.

The lever having the two arms 19 and 20, is pivoted by means of the reducedends 30 and 31 of its central portion, fitting in bearings 28 and 29 formed integral with the casing; to the upper surface of lever arm 20 is attached a spring member 32 which is curved about the central portion of the lever so as to extend under the arm 20'as shown in Fig. 1, and rest upon the casing at point 33 when the lever 20 is in the position shown. When the lever arm 20 is raised by an attraction exerted upon the armature 38 as will be later described the movement is assisted by spring 32, but just before the end of the movement spring 32 moves from in contact with casing 1 at point 33 for a reasonto be later shown. The lever arm 20 also bears a downwardly projecting arm 34 which in the normal position of the lever arm as shown in Fig. 1, is'just free from contact with spring 32. The object of this stop is to prevent the lever arm falling so low that the armature 38 will be removed from the effective zone of influence of the cores 42 of the electromagnets 43, if spring 32 should break, and it is made just short enough to normally prevent it being opera 1 tive, so that the lever arm 20 in falling after being moved upwardly will fall on and be resiliently stopped by spring 32.

An armature 38 is resiliently held in contact with the free end of lever arm 20, by means of threaded studs 35 which are fastened rigidly to the armature and pass through holes in the end of lever arm 20. The studs have castle nuts 40 upon their outer ends and a spring 41 held between the under side of the lever and the castle nut, so that the resilient tension between armature 38 and arm 20 may be varied. The object of the resilient connection is to allow armature 38 lead out at 46 and 47.

to seat fairly upon the ends of cores 42, and also to provide a resilient connection between armature 38 and pawl 16, which is very desirable, and obviates the necessity of extremely close machine work. The armature 38 has residual strips of non-magnetic material 36 fastened to its face.

The numeral 42 designates the cores of the solenoids 43, and are held in place by the nuts 44 on their upper reduced screw threaded ends. The solenoids 43 are composed of two coils each 48 and 49, the adjacent ends of the coils being connected together and forming the lead 45, the remote ends being The coil 48 is of low resistance and serves to pick up the armature 38 while the coil 49 is of high resistance it serves simply to retain it against the ends of the cores 42.

The shaft 5, has a disk 50 thereon which is held in place by a pin 51, which is passed through the shaft and rests in slotted holes in the hub of the disk 50. Bearing against the disk 50 is a washer 52 of fiber and hearing against the fiber washer is a toothed wheel 53. On the other side of the toothed wheel. is another fiber washer 54 held in place by'a disk 55 having a cone shaped hub 56 and being spring pressed by the spring 57, and being prevented from rotating independently of the shaft by the pin 58. The tension of the spring is adjusted by means of the nut 59 which is screwed onto the end of the shaft and held in adjusted position by the set screw 60. The friction means for holding the toothed wheel 53 upon the shaft 5 forms no part of the present invention.

Opcmti0w-Electric current passing through the coils 7 and 8 upon the poles 2 and 3 causes the rotation of the armature 4 in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 1, which, by any suitable mechanism can be connected to any device such as a semaphore arm which it is desired to move and hold in the moved position. By means which are well known and in extensive use in railway signaling, the coil 48 can be energized just before or at the time the semaphore arm reaches its. final moved position so that the armature 38 will be attracted toward the ends of the cores 42, thereby moving the arm 19 toward the right as viewed in Fig. 1, carrying with it the pawl 16, the teeth of which will come in contact with the rotating toothed wheel 53 but as the toothed wheel 53 is rotating in the direction of the arrow A Fig. 1, the pawl will be pushed out of the way of the teeth and rotated on its pivot 23, this being allowed by virtue of spring 25. As soon as the current is cut olf from the motor coils, which occurs in the well known manner just as the moved member reaches its moved position, toothed wheel 53 will begin to rotate in the direction of the arrow B if the motor is connected to a semaphore which is normally biased to the danger position. As soon as the semaphore or member to be moved begins to rotate backwardly the toothed wheel 53 meshes with the toothed pawl 16, forcing the pawl against the pin 27, the pawl in the wheel being held in mesh by the energization of 1 the pole pieces 42 through solenoids 49 and 48 in the well known manner, as under such conditions the armature 38 is attracted to the ends of the poles 42. In Fig. 4 the parts are shown in the locked position. As soon as the current flowing through solenoids 48 and 49 ceases, armature 38 drops, allowing the weight of the semaphore or member to be moved acting through the wheel 53 to push the toothed pawl 16 out of the path of the teeth on the toothed wheel 53 and thus allowing the moved member to return to normal position by virtue of its bias. It has been said that toothed wheel 53 upon the deenergization of cores 42 forces the pawl 16 out of engagement tlierewitl1,but if armature 38 falls away properly it does not do so, but having the device so arranged that it tends to do so and will do so if armature 38 sticks on account of some slight residual magnetism makes an added factor of safety. The spring 32 moves from in contact with. casing 1 just before pawl 16 gets into the path of the teeth on wheel 53, so that there is nothing to impede the movement of the armature 38, between the point where pawl 16 engages fully with the teeth and the point where the pawl disengages.

In case it is desired, to have the motor rotate in the direction of arrow B in Fig. 11, in placing the movable member or semaphore in its operated position, the pin 27 isremoved and placed in the hole 37, so that when the armature and wheel 53 start to move backwardly they will be restrained by pawl 16. This change corresponds to the change of upper quadrant indication to lower quadrant indication in a semaphore signal.

Having thus fully described my invention and illustrated one particular physical embodiment thereof, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is: H 1. In a retaining device, a toothed wheel capable of rotation, a spring pressed pivoted pawl, shiftable means capable of being so placed as to prevent movement in either one of two directions in which said pawl is capable of moving, and means to move said pawl into engagement with said wheel.

2. In a retaining device,- a toothed wheel adapted for rotation, a pivoted lever, a pawl pivoted on the lever. a. spring held at one end by said lever and attached to said pawl at the other end adapted to resiliently resist movement on said pawl on its pivot in either direction, said lever formed with two holes,

and a pin adapted to be placed in either of said holes, whereby a rotation of the pawl may be prevented in either one or the other direction, and means to move said lever so that said pawl will engage said toothed wheel, and thus prevent it from rotating in one direction.

3. In a retaining device, a pivoted wheel formed with teeth, means to move the wheel, a pivoted pawl formed with a tooth adapted to fit between the teeth of the wheel, means resiliently holding the pawl in a position whereby it may be moved into engagement with the wheel, means to move the pawl into engagement with the wheel, said wheel when turned in either direction rotating the pawl from engagement therewith, and means to prevent the pawl rotating in either one or the other direction so as to prevent the wheel rotating the pawl, and thus holding the wheel from rotation in one direction.

4. In a retaining device, a pivoted wheel formed with teeth, means to move the wheel, a pivoted lever, a pawl pivoted on the lever, means to prevent the pawl rotating in one direction, means resiliently holding the pawl from movement in the other direction, means to move said pivoted lever thereby causing said pawl to engage said wheel, said means including a resilient connection whereby said pivoted lever is moved and held resiliently.

FREDERICK N. HALL. Witnesses:

H. MosBAUeHER, J. FOSTER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

